


Frostbitten

by fezwearingjellybananas



Series: Writer's Month 2020 [8]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Minor Barry Allen/Cisco Ramon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25781923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fezwearingjellybananas/pseuds/fezwearingjellybananas
Summary: Caitlin was Barry's friend. He'd known her for eight years. And yet she'd betrayed them.
Series: Writer's Month 2020 [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859224
Kudos: 4
Collections: Writer's Month 2020





	Frostbitten

**Author's Note:**

> Writer's Month Day 8: Eight

Eight years. He’d known her for eight years and this is how she wanted to end it. She’d taken everything from him and she knew that. She knew.

Barry hadn’t really been close friends with Caitlin while he was studying. She was a year older than him, she was doing a PhD in biochem, he was doing his M.D., she was friends with Ramsey Russo and Tommy Meryln, and he mostly had Iris, same as always. But Iris was doing law and he was doing medicine which meant they were across campus from each other and didn’t always have the same time tables. Talking to Caitlin back then had mostly been an accident, and not even one either of them had instigated, it had been Tommy who’d asked after Barry’s dad since he’d met him while doing a placement. But after that they usually ended up seeing each other briefly once or twice a week. Occasionally she’d lend him a book if he couldn’t find it in the library. One memorable occasion just after Iris’ twenty-first her and Peter- her law friend who they’d even briefly shared a tiny apartment with- had dragged Barry out to a karaoke bar and they’d run into Caitlin and her friends. But Barry hadn’t really considered them friend friends, not then.

And then Doctor Wells had shown up right before graduation and offered Barry a job. And it hadn’t been the plan at all, he’d been looking at a position in a hospital, or even a general practise, but Harrison Wells was offering him a position at S.T.A.R. Labs. Plan or not, it seemed like an opportunity he wouldn’t get twice. He could always quit later and go back to looking at hospitals.

And Caitlin had been there. She’d never said, but Doctor Wells had found Barry crying a few months after Iris’ coma, feeling so useless that he couldn’t help his best friend, and questioning why he’d even got the job. And Doctor Wells had said Caitlin had mentioned his name when he’d talked about needing a doctor and he’d gone and looked for himself and been so impressed he’d gone straight to the university to talk to him. And Barry had thanked Caitlin quietly.

Cisco had moved in with him that week. The apartment Barry had shared with Iris since before graduation was too quiet for just him. And he’d been dating Cisco for a while. He loved Cisco. He would never have met Cisco without Caitlin. She’d been at their wedding. Maybe it hadn’t been a big fancy wedding, not even a planned wedding, just the two of them deciding life was too short not to after Barry had been kidnapped by Lisa Snart the first time only a few weeks after he’d been kidnapped by Tony, but Caitlin had been there. They were friends. He cared about her. Cisco’s parents and Dante were there, Barry’s parents, Joe, Iris, and Wally were family too, and Kendra, Doctor Wells, and Caitlin. It had been Caitlin Barry talked to after Lisa Snart kidnapped him again and he’d been worried they were going to push him out to keep him safe, like they were keeping Wally out of Team Flash, and that he couldn’t lose Iris again, he had to be a part of Team Flash because he had to help her. Caitlin knew exactly how important his job was to him.

And yet she’d done this. Doctor Wells was in a wheelchair, and Cisco was already working on designing a prosthetic leg, eventually he’d be able to work everything out, but Iris had been hurt fighting Hartley and Barry couldn’t help her. He’d felt so useless ever since Iris got struck, he’d watched her die over and over and the whole reason she’d been at S.T.A.R. Labs was him, it was his fault, and then she got powers and she was so incredible but he was so worried about losing her again. Being there to make sure she had someone to patch her up again was the one thing he had, the one way he felt useful, the one reassurance he could make sure that Iris was okay. And Caitlin had helped Hartley, she’d been working with Hartley, and he’d hurt Iris, and Caitlin had made sure Barry couldn’t look after his best friend. Caitlin his friend, the reason he had a job at S.T.A.R., the one who’d helped him take care of Iris, she was the one who did this.

He didn’t know what stung more. The fact she’d betrayed them and lied to them, or the fact that he was worried about her. Despite the phantom pain coming from the void below his knee, Caitlin was his friend and he was worried. She’d lost Ronnie and got powers, of course she was scared and needed someone to talk to. She’d just picked Hartley over him. Those eight years meant nothing to her when instead she got to talk to the man who’d been fired for breaches in his contract, who had messed with the accelerator, she hadn’t even been friends with Hartley before. Barry had been invited to her wedding even though they hadn’t set a date yet. But that didn’t matter. She’d picked Hartley over him.

He’d told Cisco to go to S.T.A.R. without him. He just needed time to think. And maybe look through a few apartment listings. Cisco had floated the idea before, but Barry had shared this tiny apartment with Iris since they were twenty-three. It was tiny and cheap, and the washing machines were constantly broken, their neighbours were loud sometimes, next door was a Santini tax front, and the nearest laundrette was used by Brockheimer for laundering money, but it was home. Cisco had moved in with Barry instead of the other way around because it was the home he’d shared with Iris for so long and they didn’t know what would happen when she woke up but mostly out of hope he’d wanted her to still have her home. But it hadn’t exactly been easy to get around on crutches just in that week after Lisa Snart had put him on them, it wouldn’t be ideal long term. And it was tiny. Maybe it was just time.

His alarm went off. That meant he had medication to take. Which meant he needed some water.

“Here, let me,” a familiar voice said. Barry didn’t move as Hartley filled a glass from the tap, walked over, and offered it to him. “I’m not here to hurt you, I swear.”

“How did you get in?”

“The window was open.”

“Well, I’m definitely going to look at moving soon then.” Barry said. He took the glass from Hartley and swallowed the tablet as Hartley sat down. “Why are you here?”

“To apologise.”

“The Flash isn’t here.”

“I’m sure Iris will make sure I’m arrested the second she sees me, and much as I do regret how everything turned out, I’m not here to apologise to her. Caitlin asked me to come and see how you are. She said she’s sorry, that she panicked-”

“Oh, well everything’s fine then,” Barry said. “Glad that’s all cleared up.”

“She told me she just aggravated your frostbite.”

“No, what she did was freeze my leg. Only she didn’t freeze the skin like Lisa Snart did. She froze everything, right down to the bone. I lost my leg and had mild hypothermia, that is not just aggravating some frostbite. And it wouldn’t be just anything, that would still be bad, still cause lasting damage, still could have meant I’d need an amputation later. Regardless of how much damage she intended to do, she intentionally hurt me, Hartley, and if she was really sorry then she’d come and tell me herself, not send you to do it for her.”

“She didn’t think you’d want to see her.”

“She’s right. I don’t. I don’t particularly want to see you either but you’re still here.”

“You and Cisco weren’t supposed to get hurt.”

“What part of lying to us for months before stabbing us in the back to go try and kill the Flash did you think wouldn’t hurt?”

“We were supposed to get Wells to own up about ignoring safety concerns with the accelerator. I told him it would fail. We just wanted him to tell the truth. We didn’t expect him to be a speedster, and Caitlin said the only one you know about is the one who murdered Iris’ mother.”

“You’re lying.”

“I saw him run. How did you think he avoided all the broken glass? But I don’t expect you to believe me. Not after all this. Ronnie’s alive. And I don’t expect you to believe me about that either, but look at the footage from outside that night, and look up Professor Martin Stein. If I’m right about that, promise you’ll at least consider what I said about Wells?”

“I don’t trust you. You tried to kill my best friend.”

“I wouldn’t have. I know how important Iris is to you. It’s why we didn’t tell you, so you wouldn’t turn down Harrison’s offers of help. It wasn’t the plan. She was never supposed to get hurt, the Flash wasn’t, it was only supposed to be about him. But I know that doesn’t change anything.”

Barry threw the rest of the water at him.

“Get out of my home.”

“I am sorry.”

“I don’t care.”

“Congratulations on the wedding. Cisco and Iris will take care of you, I know they will.”

“Barry?” That was Wally. Wally was at the door and Hartley-

He must have climbed out the window again, because he was gone by the time Wally unlocked the door and walked in.

“Hey,” Wally said. “Everything okay?”

“Fine,” Barry said. “Hey. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Cisco asked me to check on you,” he said. “I’m just dropping in.”

“I assumed he’d send someone if he didn’t come himself.”

“He said he left lunch in the fridge for you and wasn’t sure if you’d eaten yet or not.”

“Not yet, I was just about to. Shouldn’t you be at college?”

“I only have lectures mornings on Thursdays, I’m on my way to Picture News.”

“That’s going well.”

“I have been offered a full-time job after I graduate.”

“Wally, that’s amazing. Have you told Joe yet?”

“He’s not exactly been the biggest supporter of my reporting.”

“He’s just worried about you.”

“Because me writing about the Flash got me targeted by Tony Woodward, only you got in the way.”

“Tony was causing problems for Iris before all this, that wasn’t just about the Flash.”

“You’ve been kidnapped because of the Flash three times now. Twice by Lisa Snart. You almost died. But you keep helping her.”

“I don’t think I can right now.”

“If anyone can figure it out, it’s you and Cisco. Do you know why she went to you?”

“The particle accelerator caused the metahumans. I work at S.T.A.R. Labs. Why?”

“Just something Mason said. I’m sure it’s not important. I should go. Don’t want to be late and have that offer rescinded. You’re really fine?”

“I’ll call Cisco myself in a minute. You should tell Joe. I know he’d be proud of you.”

“I’ll talk to him later. See you soon.”

“Thanks, Wally.”

* * *

Wally hadn’t expected Barry to tell him. They’d all been lying to him for months anyway. They didn’t want him included. Probably why his dad had been so against Wally writing about the Flash.

And Iris hadn’t wanted him to either. But the Flash had shown up in her helmet, goggles, and suit and talked to him. She’d flitted around, never coming out the shadows, never letting him get a good look, always doing that weird thing with her voice, but out of everyone she could talk to, she’d picked him. Maybe no one else had been writing about her back then, but he’d just been a student with a blog. It wasn’t till after her fight with Cold and Heatwave Wally had been offered the internship at Picture News, and he wasn’t exactly a reporter, mostly he’d just been there to help Mason Bridge fact check, but she’d still come to talk to him. And the only person he knew for certain was connected to the Flash was Barry. But Cisco had been working on a firefighter suit, and if Barry was involved, Cisco was too. And now Barry had confirmed the particle accelerator caused metahumans. Iris had been struck by lightning that night. The Flash showed up right after she woke up without any of the issues expected after being struck by lightning and in a coma for nine months. S.T.A.R. Labs was involved and Iris had been spending a lot of time there lately.

He’d worked out the Arrow’s identity without ever meeting him while living in another city. As if he wouldn’t realise his own sister was the one running around Central.

But she didn’t want him involved. Only he couldn’t not be. He knew what he’d seen that night. And he’d shown up again at Mercury Labs at Christmas. Doctor McGee hadn’t had a clear picture from the C.C.T.V., but Wally was not ever going to forget those glowing red eyes. And the football stadium where the Lightning Man tried to kill the Flash- tried to kill _Iris_ too- had a clearer one of him in his horrible yellow suit.

Mason, usually so grumpy, had been surprisingly gentle while helping Wally calm down again. And he’d shown Wally his secret project. How he suspected Harrison Wells had a lot of skeletons in his closet. Hartley Rathaway had been one of the people he’d wanted to talk to, especially after Wally told him Wells had told Barry Hartley had been fired for messing with the accelerator. But Mason hadn’t been able to find Rathaway, and now Mason was missing, right before Hartley showed up again.

Maybe this was paranoia. But Wally wasn’t willing to accept that was a coincidence. Mister Larkin had filed a missing person report, but Wally had talked to Detective Thawne off the record and they’d got nothing. No sign of a struggle but nothing to suggest he’d left the city either. For all they knew he was just caught up following a lead.

But Wally didn’t like it. And no one else knew about Mason’s Wells project. He hadn’t trusted anyone else, just Wally. And if this was because of his Wells project, Wally didn’t want to involve anyone else either. And the people he’d usually talk to were working with Wells and had been lying to him for months. They didn’t know, that much he was certain about, but they wouldn’t like the claims much either, they trusted Wells. No one had really explained what had happened with Caitlin and Barry so he assumed it was something to do with the Flash, but Cisco had such hatred in his voice when he’d said her name, and whatever it was had happened on the same day Hartley Rathaway had shown up. They wouldn’t take the idea Wells was a liar well right after that. And they’d lied to him for months anyway. They didn’t want him involved. They’d tell him to just drop it. But if Wally could put this together, maybe it would lead him to Mason. At the very least if he could prove Wells was the Lightning Man, he could finally find the truth about what happened to his mother.

The best place to start was the beginning. When they’d talked to Tina McGee, she’d mentioned a crash that had killed Wells’ fiancée and after he’d had a dramatic personality shift. Wally had looked it up. It had been two days after the death of his mother, right outside Starling City. And there was someone in Starling he trusted and who hadn’t completely excluded him from his nightlife, even if he’d been appropriately wary and hadn’t wanted to include him when Wally had shown up asking questions. Saving someone’s life, even using the method Barry had recommended only as a very last resort that had the potential to kill him just as easily, tended to change someone’s opinion of you.

Wally pulled his phone out his pocket and dialled the number.

“Hi, Oliver,” he said. “I need a favour.”


End file.
